a weekinafghanistan. amongthe expenditures, our payment for projects that are rebuilding infrastructure in afghanistan, roads, bridges, schools, in some cases hospitals. "the washington post" recently reported that the afghan government is taxing american aid. we send money there to build a road. we have to hire contractors in order to do that. and the afghan government is trying to tax that money for their own coffers. so it's not enough that our taxpayers are spending billions of dollars on projects to rebuild their infrastructure. the afghan government is literally trying to reach in the pocket and double dip and tax our taxpayers for our taxpayers' generosity in giving them money. . how does that make any sense at all? after this was reported, they are stepping up their efforts to grab that cash. they are doing things like threatening to detain contractors. if they don't pay up, take money that's assigned to build that road and put that money in the afghan covers, the afghan officials are threatening to detain our contractors. they are denying licenses to our contract

troops homefromafghanistan. ido that because i have the privilege to represent the third district of north carolina, the home of camp lejeune marine base, cherry point and seymour johnson air force base. i have been privileged since i didn't serve to have great relationships with active duty and retired marines in the district, and i want to share with this house, mr. speaker, that we continue to support a corrupt leader and a corrupt government. just recently, the half brother of mr. karzai, half brother named wali karzai, was murdered in afghanistan. this only reinforces the fact that afghanistan is in a fragile situation at every level of their government. it is in chaos, quite frankly. just this week i spoke with a marine colonel who's been to afghanistan three times. he was in my office on tuesday, and he shared the same sentiments as the retired marine general who has been advising me for 20 months, and recently i emailed the general and said, please give me your ideas of what mr. obama has proposed in bringing 10,000 of our troops out in july and then another 23,000 in -- n

it comes to discussing the merits of continuing our effortsinafghanistan, therepublicans clamor to defend it despite our fiscal mess. i want to remind my republican friends the situation we are in now is not new. throughout history from rome to the ottoman empire to the soviet union the over extension of military and protracted struggles in foreign countries has crippled empires. some historians have credited ronald reagan for the soviet union's collapse but what really bankrupted the soviet union was its wars, just like us, they paid a crushing price both financially and morally in afghanistan. overextending geopolitically comes at a cost over time in any nation that thinks otherwise is setting itself up to repeat the mistakes of the past. as of today, the united states has spent more than 2 1/2 times the percentage of g.d.p. on afghanistan that the -- than the soviet union spent on its g.d.p. during its nine-year war in afghanistan. public polls are clear, americans know the cost of the war in afghanistan is unsustainable and want us to withdraw as soon as possible. when it co

university professor. after this break, we will talk more politics and legislationandafghanistanwithour roundtable, conn carroll and jamelle bouie. be right back. ♪ >> monday on c-span, the dali lama -- dalai lama and martin luther king, jr.'s speechwriter. they spoke about a number of topics, including the death penalty. >> the number of people who kill through violence -- are killed through violence, over 200 million. but problem not solved. i think that people lay down a seed of hatred. >> watch this discussion monday at 6:30 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> monday night on c-span, look back at president nixon's foreign policy. members of his administration and the president's son-in-law discuss topics including communism in china, invading north vietnam, and the 1967 war in the middle east. >> the discussion then in the newspapers were nixon's secret plan for peace. what was it? of course, he never talked about it. that was rockefeller pushing nixon to say something, to expose what his plan was. rockefeller did not think that nixon had a plan. he comes in after a hard day of campaigning

crossed overfromafghanistanandattacked a village on back stanny soil. the military believes the gunmen were members of the pakistani pakistan in the swat valley. again, in 2009, a military operation chased them away. they say it's a tactic that will not work. wolf? >> an amazing, very, very amazing story. thanks very much for that. it's a startling claim by a man who wants to be president of the united states. we're going to focus on new remarks by republican presidential candidate herman cain who's taking his very vocal concerns about muslims to a whole new level. and when rupert murdoch faces british law makers in a matter of hours, he may feel like he and his entire media empire are on trial. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." discover customersl are getting five percent cashback bonus at the pump... and at many of the places their summer plans take them. it pays to switch, it pays to discover. >> announcer: this past year alone there's been a 67% spike in companies embracing the cloud-- big clouds, small ones, public, private, even hybrid. your data and apps must move ea

away from capitol hill, the economy and debt crisis are weighing heavily on u.s. troopsinafghanistan. thetop question on their minds saturday, even as bombings rocked the city around them, was the top u.s. military officer couldn't answer. will we get paid? these are soldiers in afghanistan with the bombs bursting around them. here's what the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said, and i quote, "i honestly don't know the answer to that question." admiral mike mcmullin responded, statement telling them to work each day to defend this country. wearing the uniform, listening to bombs go off around them. that is why today what is referred to in the press as real people. i guess we're not. we have students like laura and sidney. we have veterans like bill and roger and carlos and ariana who is a senior. guerm who is a senior. felicia is a senior. alyssa is a senior. they are here representing the millions of people around this country who are as frayed of the soldiers on the frontline in afghanistan. we don't have more delaying tactics? we need to get to the business of hand. we have

that opium productioninafghanistan's helmandprovince has declined for the third year in a row. at the hearing, a de a witness described some of the difficulties his agency has experienced try to extradite high-level drug traffickers from afghanistan to the united states. this is an hour-and-a-half. >> the purpose of the hearing is to address our counternarcotics efforts in afghanistan as we begin the drawdown of international troops. i hope we can all agree that the taliban has morphed into a hybrid. it is one part terrorist organization and one part global drug trafficking organization. for the past today years, virtually every heroin processing lab raided by the dea, special forces, and afghan police has ties to the taliban. what they find is not only large quantities of opium and heroin, but also improvised explosive devices, bomb making materials, and taliban training manuals. in one raid last year, 2056 pounds of high-grade heroin with a wholesale value of $56 million was seized. experts agree it may take many years to get the drug trade in afghanistan under control. as t

with of the government. people that manufacture the ammunition that we sent to the troopsinafghanistan. thechoice will have to be made. what he say? who'd you pay? that is an impossible situation this country has never faced and should never faced if congress does what it is elected to do. >> messages from brokerages and investors say that even if the fault is avoided, a downgrade is likely? could you speak to a downgrade? could you speak to a downgrade? >> of the rating agencies, they make their decision. a downgrade is a bad thing, the fault is catastrophic. the focus we have to have is on the necessity of reaching an agreement that can pass the both houses and be signed into law. it will extend the borrowing capacity to pay the bills will already run up for a substantial time so that we don't have this cycle. there is one measure right now, one notion out associated with one of the measures that would have us doing this again around christmas time. does anybody think that is a good idea? what kind of impact would that have on the economy? one of the most important seasons. let's throw into dou

're at war for 10 years,inafghanistanandiraq at surge levels. we assume we're going to be fighting this war for 10 more years, with over 100,000 troops in afghanistan and oh, gosh, wait, we're going to withdraw our troops in 2014. $1 trillion in savings. i've got a better idea. let's pass a bill to cover the moon with yogurt that will cost $5 trillion today. and then let's pass a bill the next day to cancel that bill. we could save $5 trillion. wait, i've got a better idea. our debt is $14 trillion. let's come up with a new plan to spend $14 trillion, then rescind it the next day and let's save $14 trillion. this stuff is fiscal fantasy. you can't make this stuff up, mr. speaker. suggesting that we're going to be in a war at these levels for 10 more years when everybody knows we've already decided not to do that, that does not get us $1.3 trillion in spending cuts. only in washington can you add up math like that. we need real spending cuts. i yield myself an additional minute to say, this is getting serious, mr. speaker. very serious. we can't keep spending money we just don't hav

who lost his life when his offspring helicopter tragically went downinafghanistan. andnow his family and friends have found a way to honor his life and sacrifice through an annual event that is now used to raise funds for a college scholarship awarded to students at eden prairie high school where randy graduated in 1985. in addition to this scholarship, his run seeks to raise awareness of the contributions of our men and women in uniform that they make every day to keep america free. the major may not live us but his memory lives on through his family and friends and his community and through the scholarships through the local high school students that share his values. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio rise? mr. kucinich: mr. speaker, i ask permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from ohio is recognized for one minute. mr. kucinich: as congress struggles to come up with this deal over government debt, we all know that all we had

every month for military operationsinafghanistanaloneto prop up a corrupt and incompetent karzai government. how about ending wasteful subsidies to big agriculture companies? how about asking billionaire hedge fund managers to pay the same tax rates as their secretaries? the truth is that the best way to deal with our long-term fiscal situation is to grow our economy. that means creating jobs and putting people back to work. the last election i thought was about jobs. we haven't talked about jobs at all since the new republican majority became -- came to power. that means investing in things like education and infrastructure and green technology and medical research. that's the kind of economic future the american people deserve. the boehner default plan would take us exactly in the wrong direction and urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to reject it. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from california has 5 1/2 minutes remaining. the gentleman is recognized. mr. dreier: mr

's newspapers. >>> and sergeant surprise. a marine servinginafghanistantakesa chance on youtube and asks a favorite actress, mila kunis, to a military ball. >> take a second to think about it, get back to me. >> her response? yes! and now he's the envy of the corps. this is "today" on july 12th, corps. this is "today" on july 12th, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television >>> and welcome to "today" on this tuesday morning. i'm ann curry. >> i'm matt lauer. nice to see you. >> nice to see you. welcome back. we really missed you. partner in crime. >> i had perfect weather on vacation. now that perfect sunny weather has turned perfect, sunny and brutally hot. if you're in the new york area today, hopefully your afternoon plans will be indoor. 103 today. >> we're not alone. heat advisories have been issued for at least 18 states, matt. and in illinois, the dangerous temperatures are blamed for at least one death. we'll get details and al's forecast straight ahead. >>> nbc news investigates a controversy involving gop presidential hopeful michele bachmann. she owns a christian coun

inafghanistanaloneto prop up a corrupt and incompetent karzai government. how about ending wasteful subsidies to big agriculture companies? how about asking billionaire hedge fund managers to pay the same tax rates as their secretaries? the truth is that the best way to deal with our long-term fiscal situation is to grow our economy. that means creating jobs and putting people back to work. the last election i thought was about jobs. we haven't talked about jobs at all since the new republican majority became -- came to power. that means investing in things like education and infrastructure and green technology and medical research. that's the kind of economic future the american people deserve. the boehner default plan would take us exactly in the wrong direction and urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to reject it. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from california has 5 1/2 minutes remaining. the gentleman is recognized. mr. dreier: mr. speaker, as i listen to my friend from the other side

,000toafghanistansowe can spend dollars a gallon on gasoline of afghan people spend a dollar and 20 -- $1.20. it is ridiculous what we allow these people to get away with. and how many people -- i think there is 37% of this nation that consider themselves republicans now. i just can't believe there are that many stupid people in this nation. have a nice day, susan b. host: thank you. a headline in "the wall street journal." sara lee and janet hook. one note -- investors in u.s. treasuries are not betting a major deal will solve the u.s. debt situation. a tweet from peter hogan -- >> is clarksburg, west virginia. dispensed -- next is clarksburg, west virginia. spence. caller: i would like to say united we stand and divided we fall and we need to apply it to the government. we need to start with congress eliminating their little perks. some of the benefits we give to congress -- and the military men, paying them what they do, benefits for life, but when these clowns of their retired they carry a lifetime package with them. if we want to talk about deficit cuts, maybe we can close some of th

down the cost of our military effortsinafghanistanandiraq. last year we spent a little over $150 billion. this year we'll spend a little over $100 billion. and the plan is to soon be down to at least $50 billion in two or three years. so over the ten-year period there'll be about eight years at nearly $50 billion or so spent on the war instead of $150 billion. that's part of thelan that we've been operating on for a long time. $150 billion for the w is not baseline expenditure of the united states. it was never projected to continue at that level, so hopefully we could bring it below $50 billion. maybe we went get to $50 billion. i don't know. but what is the reasonable estimate? i think the house republicans and the president said it would drop to $50 billion, and that would be the baseline out there for the rest of the time. that's $1 trillion. that's $1 trillion. so you take $1 trillion out of the $2.7 trillion, you're down to $1.7 trlion. and another thing that's scored in tt, since that $1 trillion in war costs is scored the way mr. reid scored that, which is phantom money,

dark. paychecks for troopsinafghanistanandiraq and based around the world could stop. f.a.a. towers could shut down. so could the f.b.i. and the c.i.a., border crossings could close, safety inspections of food americans eat and cargo that enters our ports could halt. literally every function of governmentould cease. social security checks, payments to our veterans. we've heard that before. there would be no discussion of which operations and personnel were essential. all the payments would very likely stop. some have said we could priorize which bills to pay. even if that wouldn't irreparably damage our nation's reputation and credit in the global economy a the globe at community, which it would, is also a complete fiction. our government won't even be able to cover the bills due on august 3. it will simply run out of money and because we'll be in default and our credit rating trashed, we'll be able to borrow the money not again to keep running, even if we wanted to. that's a picture secretary geithner painted. like i said, it's grim. many of my republican colleagues understand this

of iraqandafghanistan, itwould take a serious look out of social security and medicare and in many cases contributing to this deficit. and it would say that those who benefit from ethanol subsidies and oil company tax breaks, the wealthiest people in this country would have to pay a little bit more to pay their fair share. something like that is what should be on the floor here this afternoon because it can pass, the president can sign it and it can solve the fiscal problems of this country or take us in the right direction. but we don't have something like that. instead we have a plan that says the following and puts it in the constitution, the guy who runs an ethanol company who gets massive public subsidies can make profits is completely left alone. he doesn't have to do anything. but for the woman who cleans his office at night is going to have to pay more to go to college, more for health care for herself, her children and her parents and more for just about anything she wants in her life. there's something wrong with that picture. sacrifice that is broadly shared is needed in

of every six department of defense dollars is goingtoafghanistan. wegot the taliban out of power. karzai stood for free elections in 2004. al qaeda was dismantled and sent into western pakistan. this is not a nation-building exercise. this is a counter-terror exercise. we do not need 100,000 troops on the ground of the cost we're paying today in order to get the job done. [applause] thank you. i am here to tell you the future of the united states is not going to be determined in the prairies of afghanistan. the future of the united states is going to be determined by how well-prepared we are to compete in a highly competitive 21st century. that battle will be waged across the pacific ocean. we have some work to do. as you walk out of this building, i want you to remember why we're in this race. it is because it is about the generation and we're about to pass the country to and the condition in which they will find it. my priorities will be debt and spending. we have no choice. trajectory we're on is unsustainable. launching a new industrial revolution is within our grasp. it has happened

withafghanistan, andover the years the number has gone up steadily. in the first few years in the strikes of 2,042,007 they're just a handful and then we see it going up in 2010. the obama administration rising at a policy never fully publicly articulated. 118 strikes last year and 45 so far this year. the pakistanis said a couple of months ago that they wanted him stopped them stopped and they ordered the cia out in their base in pakistan were some of the strikes are being launched. by my reckoning there is than a dozen since then. so has this been done like the enlightened raid against the will of the pakistan government? put the whole thing in a different legal contextualization. we don't know that for sure but we know the americans are defensive about in last month for example john brennan tried to relay concerns he took to new targeting procedure and he said that in the past year there hasn't been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency precision of the capabilities we have been able to develop. in other words because they have been checking much more carefully th

of bereeved relatives of soldiers that had diedinafghanistan, iraqand indeed very seriously they had approved the -- the senior members had approved payments to members of the police. so this has exploded this week into a scandal that has changed the landscape of both politics and media in the united kingdom. host: yesterday, "the guardian" newspaper has a picture of andy coltson. who is he? guest: he was the editor from 2003 to 2007. a period when many of these hacks were alleged to have taken place. in 2007 he stepped down from "news of the world" after this scandal first came to light. indeed after the correspondent had gone to jail over allegations of hacking the royal households phones. but he then went to work for david cam ran, the prime minister and he stepped down from this post as this story continued to rumble at the very beginning of this year. yesterday he presented himself for arrest at a london police station. he was released in the afternoon. his house was raided. he was questioned and he is now a very central figure in that investigation. he's also very central figur

month for military operationsinafghanistanaloneto prop up a corrupt and incoetent karzai government. how about ending wasteful subsidies to big agriculture companies? how about asking billionaire hedge fund managers to pay the same tax rates as their secretaries? the truth is that the best way to deal with our long-term fiscal situation is to grow our economy. that means creating jobs and putting people back to work. the last election i thought was about jobs. we haven't talked about jobs at all since the new republican majority became -- came to power. that means investing in things like education and inastructure and green technology and medical research. that's the kind of economic future the american people deserve. the boehner default plan would take us exactly in the wrong direction and urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to reject it. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from california has 5 1/2 minutes remaining. the gentleman is recognized. mr. dreier: mr. speaker, as i list

the paper work, without a court order. while they were in iraqorafghanistan, theywere the victim families. this is an area we want to look into. host: and their relation to david petraeus? guest: she is married to him. host: maria, a republican. you are on. caller: my husband and i both watch c-span regularly, and we are concerned about this agency created with a half of a $1 billion budget. our question is how much duplication is taking place? he mentioned a few minutes ago that hundreds of people have already been hired. could you let us know the duplication of these consumer protection services that this new agency is supposed to do, and how, and what is going to happen to these other employees within the federal government? guest: well, that is a very good question. consumer protection used to be in various different agencies. the fed had consumer, occ -- all of these different agencies. consumer protection was often a secondary thought, a third thought, or not even thought about at all. that is why regulators did not in any way most to curb the abuses in the sub-prime lending, which

-in-lawinafghanistanandmy sister works as physical therapist with a young man who just lost his leg last year in iraq. now if a man can give his legs up for this country, why can't the wealthy give up some of the tax loopholes, spread a little bit of this around. it is unbelievable the fact -- we don't even have to raise taxes on anybody. just make them pay their taxes. a lot of republicans and small businesses pay their taxes but the super rich don't. and i don't think people understand the kind of tax loophole that is are in shelters. host: we're moving on to foster in centerville, georgia, on our line for democrats. go ahead. caller: hi. how are you doing? i'm just wondering now, now we actually elected people to go to congress to balance the budget and pay the bills but do they realize instead of making an amendment, do they already have the authority to pay the bills? host: well now have you let your representative or senator know how you feel about this? caller: we certainly have. me and my girlfriend got together and we got up a sheet with all the republicans representatives. we called all the

and distinction in iraqandafghanistanwouldfeel that way to draw back on the benefits that they earned. during the bush years our country spent $1.5 trillion in iraq and national defense. the turnaround in our budget picture during the bush years was remarkable. in october of 2008, cnn reported that the debt clock had run out of numbers. the debt clock actually had exceeded 13 digits that had been allotted to the clock and had to be revised. according to one report at the end of the bush term, the number of jobs in the nation increased by 2%. that's the lowest at anytime since data began to be collected seven decades ago. gross domestic product was at the lowest pace since the truman administration, and the price that america has paid for the theology that suggested during all of those years that tax cuts pay for themselves. you can't find a mainstream economist in this town today who will acknowledge that argument. and yet we hear now more tax cuts for the wealthiest americans. by the time that the bush years ended, the debt had increased to $10.6 trillion, setting a record for any administra

to die. these needs last long after the last american combat ants depart iraqandafghanistan. thismotion to recommit would simply protect our veterans from any potential unintended consequence resulting from this ill-conceived bill, the so-called cut, cap and balance act. the needs of america's veterans should be one of our highest priorities and this motion will ensure that our veterans are taken care of and that they receive the benefits they have earned. let's be clear, the passage of this motion to recommit will not prevent the passage of the underlying bill. this amendment is adopted, it will be incorporated into the bill and the bill will be immediately voted upon. so though we may disagree on the bill, today we have the opportunity with this motion to recommit and my amendment to speak with one voice in support of our veterans. it is up to all of us, i urge you to vote yes on this motion to recommit. but let's make sure that if this bill as its -- passes, the cut, cap and balance and any balanced budget will not result in a reduction of veterans benefits. vote yes on

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